TAMPA, FL - USF Football held it's first annual Kickoff Luncheon at the Waterside Marriott Hotel in Downtown Tampa.

• Over 500 supporters attend the USF Luncheon
• USF Vice President of Athletics Michael Kelly addressed the crowd
• USF coaches and players sat with fans during lunch to thank them for support

This day was not just for USF fans and alumni. It was a chance for some of the most inflluential people in Tampa to come together to show support for USF Football ahead of the 2019 season.

That meant the opporunity for USF Vice President of Athletics Michael Kelly to speak about the future of USF Football and USF Athletics as a whole. The most important pitch he made was about the need for an on-campus Indoor Practice Facility. The total cost is around $40 million (with more needed to help maintain and run the facility).

As of now fundraising stands at just north of $20 million. Kelly brought some of the current issues to light in front of the USF crowd.

"To be able to compete (against the Power Five programs on the field and in recruiting) we need to get the resources that our student-athletes need to succeed in what challenges them in the future," said Michael Kelly who presented a slide show of (slightly modified) renderings of the proposed Indoor Practice Facility. "We have been preaching about this for over a year now and we are going to keep on preaching this until we get it built."

"We've had a lot of rain," said Kelly, recognizing that football camp and the early parts of the season fall into Florida's rainy season. "(Wednesday) we had rain and storms that inconveniences the heck out of our guys and all of our staff. It's one thing for us to navigate around (practice time) in the summer. But when you get to class time there is no way to work that around we just lose practice. We aren't missing class and we only have ceetain hours to work with."

Kelly layed out a two-fold plan with this center to serve as a practice facility with the indoor field and also the operations center for football to workout, hold meetings, eat meals and also allow for other teams on campus to take advantage of the center.

Following the event, which was hosted by Spectrum Bay News 9 evening anchor Veronica Cintron, Kelly spoke more about the ability to have a large audience of heavilly involved members of the communitY that included Tampa Mayor Jane Castor,  Hillsborough County commissioner Ken Hagan, Tampa Bay Sports Commission Executive Director Rob Higgins and WWE superstar Titus O'Neil. 

"“My time here, so far, there’s always been a lot of talk about the center, but it’s really my first chance to talk directly to a big audience. So, I know our diehard fans are intimately aware of this, but this was an expanded group. We kept talking about engaging more and we want to engage more with the Tampa Bay community. Fan Fest last week had a record crowd and to have over 500 people at this luncheon was just another great way for our program to engage with the Tampa Bay community.” 

Spectum Sports 360 has learned that if USF can get donations to around $30 million the IPF could be completely built and then bonded out.